XXX Olympiad: Photos by Simon Roberts

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The XXX Olympiad was held on the fifth anniversary of the credit crunch, against the backdrop of economic uncertainties, Eurozone turmoil and predictions of a long, slow financial recovery. The past seven years of Olympic planning has also taken place during a period when we’ve witnessed the end of the debt-fuelled boom, the riots in England, calls for Scottish independence, the defeat of New Labour and the rise to power of a Conservative-Liberal Democratic coalition.

In many ways it was a period reminiscent of the last Olympics held in London, in 1948, which were known as the austerity games. London 2012, it was widely claimed, presented an opportunity for the British public, and indeed much of the rest of the world, to momentarily forget the economic gloom that surrounded us.